Coming as it does less than a fortnight after Michael DeSilva outlined the way forward for the Bermuda Police Service over the next three years, yesterday’s release from the union whose mandate it is to safeguard the welfare of the officers who will “make Bermuda safer” appears as a bit of a public relations kick in the teeth.

However, while the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of National Security may not agree, it is the kick that is needed so that the wider community can fully appreciate the depth of the problems faced by those who are commissioned to protect us.

Trying to do more with less is a thankless task and the police are not alone in this. Everyone across all levels of industry has been affected by an at times crippling recession, and failure to acknowledge how crippling it might be has led to a massive public debt and the stringent measures that must surely follow.

There will be much more blood on the dancefloor before all is said and done. But for now, we focus on the police and how they might best fulfil their objectives in these straitened times.

In presenting his strategic plan for the years 2016 through 2018, Mr DeSilva focused on five areas of priority: tackling crime and antisocial behaviour, engaging with the community, making the roads safer, investing in people and optimising technology.

The commissioner made the valid point that road fatalities drew an unfavourable comparison with deaths related to violence or gang activity over the past ten years and that this was the reason for police to make our poor drivers Public Enemy No 1.

However, eradicating the scourge of gangs and gun crime is still crucially important, as evidenced by the drive-by shooting at Morgan’s Road, Warwick, this week.

The Bermuda Cricket Board, which had already endured a difficult summer from a public relations standpoint, justifiably could feel hard done by, as the shooting of a 17-year-old boy took place only a stone’s throw from where it was announced less than 24 hours later that a youth cricket facility is to be established.

With the negative attachment in mind, the board and DHL, the facility’s sponsor, could have delayed announcement of a partnership that can only be good for aspiring young cricketers, but to do so would have been to give in to the criminals and to let them dominate the conversation.

The drive to get illegal guns off the streets and to rehabilitate offenders, while educating at-risk youngsters, should be persevered with. The benefits of the Gang Resistance Education and Training programme may not be fully reaped until the next generation. And once gang membership begins to dwindle, the onus is on communities to see to it that the trend is not reversed.

And, yes, thank you, the young boy who was shot is alive and well after hospital treatment. But did he deserve it? No. No one, but for 15 minutes’ fame or street cred, should have to go through life with “I was shot in the leg” on his CV. It is not the badge of honour to be proud of.

Police doing more with less means the battle must begin in the homes and continue in the schools; it should not start there. Parents, despite the social and financial pressures they face, must be the example they want their children to be. A solid foundation of love, caring and guidance can make all the difference for those most at risk. To throw your hands up in despair as if there is nothing that can be done to counter peer pressure is to risk repeating a dangerous cycle.

Not as dangerous as driving on our roads, as police statistics have shown.

That we are dreadful drivers should come as no shock to anyone and the police are right to identify this epidemic in the manner that they have. However, the statistic that we have endured fewer road fatalities this year — six in total but none since June — should not weaken the aforementioned observation or the resolve for a cure.

We still treat the roads as our personal playthings and drive with a reckless abandon whereby it can be safe to say that it is more by luck than design that fatalities on the roads this year have lowered the annual average to a nevertheless appalling 11.38 for the eight years to November.

The numbers of cars and bikes “colliding” with immovable objects, such as kerbs or walls, suggests that something is amiss in our mental processes. Not to mention the high alert during rush-hour traffic; the term “rush hour” being pertinent for cities, but hardly applicable to places the size of Bermuda.

But everyone appears to have somewhere to go — and fast. Why? We cannot say; that one’s for the psychoanalysts. Where? We can because, over 21 square miles, it cannot be too far. Can it?

On an island where there can be found debate even over what day it is, so polarised are we, on driving badly we can most definitely agree — black, white, rich, poor, straight or LGBT — or should agree that we are less than the sum of our parts when put behind the wheel or when given the keys to a motorcycle.

Further justification to divert manpower to policing the roads can be found given the overall and steady fall of crime since the early Noughties. However, a word to the wise: the third quarter of 2015 was the first in four in which the crime graph took a dip south, the longest sustained increase in crime since the third quarter of 2007.

So we are not out of the woods yet, and Mr DeSilva and his fine crew of men and women in blue would be the first to admit that.